Friday, July 10, 2009

Kasparov vs. Karpov - Hell yeah!



This is awesome. Kasparov and Karpov will be facing off in a match in Spain in September to commemorate the 25th anniversary of their first match. I've always been in awe of both of these players, but in particular of Kasparov, whose style I like much more than Karpov's. Good old Garry is a killer, and his emphasis on initiative makes for the most exciting chess I can imagine. He's the master of complications with a ruthless ferocity. I just hope he's still in good shape after all these years.

Can't wait to see this...

9 comments:

Unknown said...

Thats going to be an awesome match. Kasparov has been busy in the political scene for the past few years. We'll have to see how time away from the game and the emotional conflict of protesting one's own government plays out.

Pawn Shaman said...

That was me up above, not sure why the name went so squirrely. Kasparov met with Obama the other day, interesting article. http://www.theotherrussia.org/

Tommyg said...

I read an interesting statistic about these two guys! Even though Kasparov won all of their World Championship Matches (except of course for the first aborted one), their overall record is: 21 wins to Kasparov, 19 wins to Karpov and 104 draws. After all those games Kasparov has only up 2 games! Amazing! That is how close these two all time greats are, and also shows just how important and intense their sporting rivalry was and is!!

Chess? said...

I don't believe this will be a knock down drag out match. I think we will see more of an exibition rather than a true match from the past. But I will still be front row!

Chessaholic said...

Pawn Shaman: Yeah I've been following the news on that too, it's interesting even though nothing much resulted from the meeting between Kasparov & Obama. But regardless of whether you agree or not with Kasparov's political involvement, I think he deserves kudos for doing what he's doing in such an oppressive political environment.

Tommy: I know, their record is amazingly even so it should be a great match. Karpov has been and still is playing on a regular basis, so he should be in good shape. But this is going to be watched closely by so many people, you just know Kasparov is going to take this really seriously.

Chess?: I agree, and they don't really portray it as such I think. If I'm not mistaken, I think this may actually be at rapid time controls. But still - both of these guys are extremely competitive, and they weren't exactly best friends in the past so there should be some good fightin' chess :)

wang said...

I hope Karpov wins.

I've always been a fan of his.

Chessaholic said...

wang: karpov? KARPOV? how dare you!

hehe just kidding... it will be fun to watch, and I predict a clear win by kasparov :)

From the patzer said...

I believe that Karpov has won the last match they played. If i am not mistaken it was a rapid match.

Maybe a big fan of Karpov or Kasparov can look this up?

nikita said...

Beautiful pic!